Best Thing Ever Made Out of T-Day Leftovers?

[Jenise]

Until last night, I couldn't have answered that question. Now, however, I have an answer: soup. But not the soup you think.

The friends we dined with on Thanksgiving sent me home with a bit of leftovers. Not quite enough to make dinner for two out of with respect to the mashed potatoes and stuffing (my own fault as I was generously offered as much as I wanted, and I was a bit too dainty about it), more like one Hungry Man serving of each with just a bit of gravy poured over both. So into a teflon skillet went the stuffing which eventually dried out to the point where I could crumble it, and into a saucepan went the mashed potatoes, gravy, some half and half left from making the pumpkin pie filling (otherwise it's not usually on hand), and chicken broth. When the mashed potatoes dissolved, I added two small diced russets, and a handful of chopped green onion and parsel (looks like parsley, tastes like celery), and a lot of coarse ground black pepper. When the potatoes were cooked, I served the soup in large mugs and garnished each with the crispy crumbled stuffing which ended up being the glorious nuggets you search out and savor to get just a bit of in every bite. Outstanding!

Mmm... Very "Top Chef" of you! Way to think outside of the box (as you always do. ) Sounds delish.

Very creative, Jenise!

While I usually make turkey noodle from leftover roast turkey, the best has to be split pea soup, make from the carcass of leftover smoked turkey! I didn't make any turkey this year, for the first time in ages, but I did pick up an 18-pounder on sale earlier this week (48 cents/lb.) and have it in the freezer for some future endeavors.

One year when all the grandkids were little, someone asked me to make a tater tot casserole, cause their mom would not. Since Tater Tots is not on my list of things to buy, I did a little research and found a ghastly looking thing with leftovers from Thanksgiving topped with tater tots. I created my own version in a 9 x 13 buttered dish. As best as I can recall, the stuffing went on the bottom, next, layers of mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberries, more stuffing topped with gravy, tater tots on top. The taters got nice and crispy, the gravy and cranberries sort of dissolved into the casserole and it was very good. Grandkids loved it and a little of the dish went home with each of them, to have for lunch, and give mom a break.

What I like best is to roast the carcass and all saved bones, along with leeks, onions, parsley, whole garlic cloves, and carrots, then added to water to make a rich stock. Which is what I am doing right now. To the strained stock I add real baby carrots from the Farmer's Market, onions, shallot, celery, baby spinach picked from my garden, San Marzano whole tomatoes (cut up) and roasted garlic. For some reason, I always seem to have a few lasagna noodles in my pantry, so I boil those, then cut to bite size and put into the soup during the last few minutes. Yummy stuff.

The first opportunity after T-giving we make turkey club sandwiches, our favorite leftover. Nothing like what you get in the greasy spoon except name. We put sliced turkey, cranberry, and mayo on one layer, and BLT on the other. We use toasted sourdough bread. The best!

Next we make sure we have three cups of turkey cubes for Turkey Tetrazzini to go into the freezer for a later date.

Then we survey what is left besides the carcess. If possible be redo T-giving more or less. Leftover stuffing goes into a baking dish, followed by sliced turkey, and then gravy. Cover with foil and warm in oven and serve with other leftovers.

Finally the carcess goes into the slow pot with veggies, etc to make stock for soup or whatever.

Nothing fancy here, but at our age tradition overwhelms innovation!